Vacation- Part One

I know it's been an epic period since my last post-- and I'll leave it at that. I've tried to keep this blog going even when the day to day work of being a two working parent household seems overwhelming, and I think I've managed okay. I just have to learn how to shut off the voice in my head that tells me I could/should be doing more all the time.

We had the most amazing trip to Disneyland last week. We drove down to Salinas Friday night to spend the weekend with Savvy's Nona and Grandpa. Savvy quickly became attached like velcro to her Nona and began consuming mass amounts of sugar. :) After some fun in the pool we drove down to Anaheim where I was shocked at just how much the Disneyland area has changed since I was last there 11 years ago. For instance, where I once stood in a parking lot, there is now another theme park. We stayed at the Paradise Pier Hotel (a Disney property next door to California Adventure). The hotel was great and we had fun one afternoon splashing around in the pool and sending Savvy down the water slide... let's just say she didn't ask to do it again. We bought a meal plan along with our package so we ended up doing four character meals while we were there- a Minnie and Friends breakfast in the park, a Chip and Dale breakfast at Storyteller's Cafe (in the Grand Californian hotel), another Mickey and friends breakfast at our hotel and lunch at Ariel's Grotto (in California Adventure). I would say that of all the money we spent at the park the character meals were the best bang for our buck. Savvy LOVED meeting all the characters and the food there was the best we had during our trip... gotta love those Mickey waffles. :)

The first day in Disneyland Savvy was in a daze-- overwhelmed, really-- with the magnitude of being surrounded by all this... Disney. She just stared at everything in a silent stupor, especially the It's a Small World ride. Our highlights from the trip were watching her meet Mary Poppins (she was completely star struck and asked Mary where Jane and Michael Banks were), seeing the World of Color show (amazing), watching Savvy light up when all the princesses visited her during her lunch at Ariel's Grotto and watching Savvy dance in the Celebrate parade at Disneyland. Despite a few missed naps (and subsequent temper tantrums) Savvy was a dream, and it was great having her Nana and Grandpa Salt along to share in the fun. We're looking forward to taking the next baby back and letting Savvy get excited all over again when she's a little older.

In other news, we are in the midst of what has turned out to be a ridiculously dramatic home buying process. Depsite all that you hear about it being a buyer's market, we have encountered nothing but trouble trying to buy another house. Our first offer was countered-- with a price over asking. Our second home was lost because our offer came in higher (but a week too late) than another one. The third one was lost because of multiple offers over asking and we're still in the middle of sorting out what will become of the fourth. We put an offer in over three weeks ago and have countered back and forth three times until we were told that everyone was in agreement. Then we hear that they got a higher offer and might not take ours after all. Now we've signed their contract and are waiting to get a counter signed copy back... otherwise the hunt begins again.

So that's what we've been up to. I'm having to post a part one and two due to the mass amount of pictures... here's part one.